Education in values is a broad concept, where educating is not only limited to teaching subjects or skills. Our aim as an educational centre is that, after a student has passed through our school, we have formed people who are capable of taking on new challenges and actively committing themselves, playing an active role in the construction of a fairer, more inclusive, equitable and intercultural world.

At O Castro British International School we promote, among other values, multiculturalism in the classroom, outside the classroom with international exchange opportunities during school holidays and through annual international events. Without this experience we would all be the same, we would all have the same beliefs and act in the same way. This would limit our growth and development as human beings. Multiculturalism allows us to broaden our horizons, learn about their culture, empathise with others and shapes the way we think.

The multicultural values of our school encourage a more open attitude in today's pluralistic and globalised world. When the world is perceived from a multicultural perspective, it is easier to approach concepts, events or situations from different positions. Benefits that have immediate consequences now that students are in the midst of training, but above all we are sowing the seeds of what will become an open and tolerant mind. In this sense, it is easier to develop problem-solving and critical thinking skills. Multiculturalism also teaches us that there is more than one valid point of view when it comes to the perception of reality.

Benefits of multiculturalism

Multiculturalism has many benefits, among which the following can be mentioned:

- The diversity of ideas and beliefs from different cultures helps to foster respect for them.

- It allows us to mix and learn from different cultural forms.

- A multicultural perspective reduces ethnocentrism and broadens and enriches horizons, which contributes to the discovery and creation of new concepts.

- It encourages innovation and creativity by offering a broader perspective enriched by different cultural forms.

Not forgetting that through cultural and linguistic immersion in a non-native language country, it facilitates language learning, and brings our child closer to bilingualism. Languages are learnt by using them, playing, having fun with others, forcing a conversation and being forced to communicate.

Furthermore, at O Castro British International School we firmly believe that multicultural experiences help to reinforce self-esteem in individuals by recognising and respecting members of different cultural groups and to consolidate one's own cultural identity. For this reason, we promote the Host Family Programme in Vigo, so that those students who live outside the region can take advantage of all the benefits of the school, providing a pleasant experience for both the host family and the student.

And as if all this were not enough, a recent study, published in the journal American Psychologist, supports the idea that multicultural experiences, such as exchange programmes, increase creativity. In this regard, the authors found that the breadth of multicultural experiences was positively related to creative performance (remote association and idea generation) and to cognitive processes related to creativity (retrieval of unconventional knowledge, integration of ideas from unfamiliar cultures in the expansion of new ideas).